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SERMON 

Preached By 

DR. C^*EVEREST GRANGER 

At 

Presbyterian Church of the Covenant 

WILLIAMSPORT. PA. 

SUNDAY. JUNE 5 



WAKE UP, AMERICA 



Could anyone ever think of America as being asleep. She 
has been wide enough awake in some particulars to be sure. 
She has advanced by leaps and bounds jn many respects. Her 
population has increased many fold, her industries have multiplied 
almost boundlessly, her wealth has become fabulous, her inven- 
tions have startled the world. In the arts and sciences she has 
taken a front rank among nations. In all resources she has 
become well nigh limitless. She has become in a few years 
a great nation and latterly, a world power and now the nation 
to which world empires are looking for help and salvation. Are 
not all these things strong evidences that America has been 
and is awake? Yes and no! This very progress, this advance- 
ment, this growth, this accomplishment of the past and posi- 
tion of the present may prove to be America's undoing. She 
has become great and she has become conscious of her great- 
ness. She has become great and she has become confident In 
her greatness, too confident, over confident, absurdly confident, 
and has been suffering from a case of big-head for some time 
past. America must take warning from history, and what if 
she does stand head and shoulders over any and every other 
nation on earth, she cannot afford to go blustering and blunder- 
ing about like Goliath, nor be careless of her armor, nor leave 
one vital part exposed. Complacent in her greatness, America 
needs a stinging smack on the face to wake her up. She'll get it. 

When I was a boy on the streets of New York city, being of 
an investigating turn of mind, as are most boys, I was always 
interested to travel down about the wharves along West Street 
and South Street. And there I have seen many an old sailor, 
who having spent his long and hard earnings on booze, stretched 
full length upon the street or in some doorway, in drunken stupor. 
And I was always iterested, if not amused, to see the "cop" come 
along and taking his night-stick give these poor fellows a re- 
sounding whack on the soles of their shoes, to bring them to their 



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senses. Well, nothing else would do it. Shaking would not do 
it. Argument would not do it, but that blow from the night 
stick would do it. America is drunken with wealth and with 
power and must needs have a vigorous awakening, and, she'll 
get it. 

The average American thinks honestly that America can whip 
the world. To him Uncle Sam is just a little bit below the Lord 
God Almighty. He takes up a map and says: "Why see the ex- 
panse of our territory." And we answer, "Yes, all of which 
adds just so much more to the task of protection." He takes the 
government reports and he says: "Look at our population, one 
hundred million from which to select our army and navy." "Yes, 
but it takes from two to five years to create an army or man 
a navy," we answer. He examines our great mining industries, 
and says: "Look at these great mines, here are your guns and 
ammunition." "Yes, we answer again, and there they will stay 
for many a day. It is a long and tedius journey from mine to 
finished product." He travels our great forests and says: "Look 
at these forests, why here are your ships." "Yes," again we say, 
"but it will take twenty years to convert these forests into ships." 
"Oh, foolish America, who hath bewitched you?" Armies and 
navies and ships and ammunition and equipment cannot be made 
in a day or a year. 

Nor must we forget that while we have been growing great, 
other nations have been growing great also. We have forgotten 
that I fear. We have been so self centered, so charmed with 
our own wondrous success as a people and as a nation that we 
have failed to see the progress of others. It is time we sat up and 
took notice. If our growth and advancements have been phenom- 
enal, those of other nations have been equally so. See the coun- 
tries of South America, see South Africa, see New Zealand, see 
Japan, see Germany! Enough said on that score and these facts 
stand boldly out. We are a great nation but simply one among 
great nations. We are a great nation, but while blessed with 
numbers, resources, wealth and many gifts, we are at the same 
time cursed with self-complacency, if not self esteem, and an 
overconfidence which is always dangerous and may prove dis- 
astrous. 

"Wake up, America!" Is a timely admonition. "Wake up" you 
will, eventually you will, but wake up promptly, at once will be 
wiser and better. Some are already awake but that will not do, 
simply to have some awake, all must be awake, wide awake and 
stay awake. I believe the government is awake, but even that 
will not do, the people must be awake, the people and all the 
people. It took England two years to wake up. I wonder how 
long it will take America. I want to be awake, wide awake and 
keep awake, and I want you to be the same. 

"Wake up, America," to the DANGERS of the hour. We are 
at war, at war, at war. Few realize what that means. We will 
yet realize it. We are at war with an enemy of great power, great 
resourcefulness, great ability. We are at war with an enemy 
who will own no law but selfish expediency, who will show no 
mercy, who will resort to and is capable of every cunning possible 
to men and devils. This is no child's play upon which we have 
entered, and before we are through with it I predict this nation 
will be shaken to its very center. Disasters will come upon us, 
homes will be robbed forever of dear ones, hundreds and thou- 
sands of our young men will be slain, our resources will be taxed 



to the utmost. This is war in which we are engaged, war with 
a great and awful enemy. Let me impress that upon you. It ia 
true that we have with us great and powerful allies, but these 
have been taxed to their utmost. They have done their best, 
and the very fact of the little they have been able to do is 
but another evidence of the power of our enemy. We all hope 
and expect that eventually the allies will win and win a glorious 
and decisive victory. We have been expecting that for some 
time, but It has not come. But what if the allies should not win? 
What then? Could we hope to do what England, France and 
Russia and a number of other nations combined could not do? 
Take affairs at home. This is far from being a homogeneous 
nation. We are having troubles at home; more troubles are 
brewing; troubles are growing. I have been told that there are 
eighty thousand secret service men working for our government 
throughout the country. I guess all are needed and more will 
be needed. Teuton spies, Teuton intrigue. Teuton influences are 
at work on every side. And should the fortunes of war go 
against us, we need expect no quarter. America has been the 
thorn in the flesh of Germany in all this war, and now that we 
have entered the war actively we can depend upon it, though 
she ignors us, she nevertheless hates us with an awful hatred 
and will, if possible, have her revenge. And should tlie fortunes 
of war go against us it is not impossible that our navy be de- 
stroyed, our great coast cities sacked, our commerce ruined, our 
territory divided, and our people taxed heavy indemnity to pay 
to the boot. It is an impossible picture you say, but it would not 
be unique in history — such things have happened and may again. 
Who knows? 

"Wake up, America," to the DANGERS of the hour. 

"Wake up, America," to the Duties of the hour. Moral obli- 
gations rest upon nations as upon individuals. A crazy, despotic, 
cruel nation has run amuck. Small nations have been crucified. 
All human rights have been violated. Treaties have been thrown 
into the waste basket. International laws have been trampled 
under foot. Honor, justice, mercy have been brushed aside and 
laughed to scorn. America as a nation and as a Christian nation 
owes a duty to humanity, owes a duty to the memory of its 
founders and preservers, has a duty to perform. She has had 
this duty upon her heart and in her mind all through this war, 
and now at last has entered upon the active performance of it. 
We all want to see America perform her national duty, to respond 
to her world obligations and to live among nations with a clear 
conscience and a pure heart. We are therefore in this war, not 
for national gain, but to accomplish our national obligation and 
do our simple duty in the world. Many see it that way. All do 
not, however. We therefore say, "Wake up, America" to the 
Duty of the hour. And while we are jealous for the nation to 
do its duty let us each and every one see to it that we do our 
duty and be not found wanting in the obligations God has 
placed upon us as individuals as well as a nation. 

"Wake up, America" to the PRIVILEGES of the hour. Here 
is a chance, a brilliant chance for America to make an impress 
upon the world, not of might and power only, but of righteous- 
ness and brotherhood and love and peace. An irapres.s which 
the world sorely needs. She must keep her high and lofty ideals 
before her own eyes and before the eyes of the world. She 
covets not to whip the world, nor to win the world, but to serve 



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the world. God help her so to do. Every individual must keep 
true to these lofty standards in thought and action. And if we 
can emerge from this awful conflict upon which we have entered, 
with record true and honor unsullied, and aid the world in its 
struggle for democracy and brotherhood and peace, we will have 
served our race and day well and God will own and bless us. 
"Wake up, America" to the Privileges of the hour. 

We are average Americans and this is an average American 
city. I cannot with either voice or pen reach all Americans, but 
I can reach a few. So I want to be awake, wide awake, and 
keep awake, and I want you to be the same. And I want to do 
my bit and I want you to do your bit and we will do all we can 
in the great hour of need. The pulpit must help, the press can 
help, the schools can help, the banks and financial institutions 
can help, the farmers can help, the merchants can help, tbe house- 
wife can help. All can help and all must help to win. How? 
Oh, myriad ways. First, wake up and keep awake, then give of 
your time and funds and influence and self, it may be. Stop 
waste! Buy a Liberty Bond, or more if you can. Pray to the 
God of just battles. But "wake up" and keep awake and have 
a heart and mind to do and opportunities will come thick and 
fast. 

I have just returned from Washington. I had been away 
from there about a month. I noticed a very evident change of 
atmosphere down there. A peculiar seriousness permeates the 
Capitol city. There is realization. I think that seriousness is 
spreading. Men, women, citizens, patriots we are at war, at war, 
at war. "WAKE UP, AMERICA." 




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